BFF Open House Link Party #43 Wrap Up and Features

Before I jump into the features, I am remiss in welcoming and thanking new followers. I don’t obsess over numbers but I also do want to acknowledge that I’ve seen the number of people following increase and am really excited and honored to have you!

Thanks again for another great party. So many great ideas and here are just a few projects that caught my eye!

I am smitten by bottle lamps, even though I haven’t yet attempted one. I’ve seen them in Ballard and PB catalogs, and in stores. Intrepid DIYers have tackled these and done so brilliantly!

Bethany, from Pitter and Glink shared this stunning mercury glass etched lamp:

And Kathleen from Charm Bracelet Diva shared the amazing find she picked up at Goodwill and transformed into another gorgeous bottle lamp:

Coincidentally, there was another inspiring pair of projects linked up…bright and brilliant bulletin boards:

The first from Michele at The Scrap Shoppe:

Talk about a transformation!

And Mel, the Crafty Scientist shared this beautiful quatrefoil bulletin board:

Finally, I love this idea from Sarah at Alderberry Hill. She has a multi purpose twig tree  that she decorates for whatever occasion…in this case an ab fab birthday party she threw for her daughter!

Isn’t it fun?!

Hope you all have a great and creative week!

Shamrocks Don't Have to Be Green!

I don’t do a ton of decorating for St. Patrick’s day but seeing so many cute ideas inspired me to do SOMETHING. This was a very quick project that I could work into my non-seasonal mantle.

I’ve been neglecting CoCo (my Silhouette Cameo) and she was sitting on my desk, staring at me petulantly. She needed to be involved!

I decided to combine one of the iconic  colors of St. Patrick’s day, gold, with its traditional shape the shamrock, and cut my shamrock from gold Expressions vinyl.  I found this great shape with the swirls in the Silhouette online store.

I simply framed a piece of green suede / velvet scrapbook paper cut to size and then placed the shamrock on top of the glass. Of course I needed to add some rhinestones because it’s what I do! The center is one black rhinestone with smaller green rhinestones that fortunately fit perfectly around it!

At the same time I cut my shamrock, I cut the letters LUCK from the same gold vinyl. I absolutely love being able to do exactly what you want in the same project...add a text box on the same page as a shape; choose the font from what's already installed on your computer etc.


Embellished the letters randomly with more black rhinestones. Easy project and the best part is everything was already on hand!

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PAPER ISSUES

BFF Open House Link Party #43 and BFF LoopyLoop Creations!

MARCH?! Just sayin’. But that does mean it’s National Craft Month and I know lots of my favorite crafting companies have fun things in store.

This week I’d like to introduce you to BFF Donna and her blog LoopyLoop Creations. Donna is a busy lady! Works full time, has two kiddos, engaged, and soon to be mom to three more! Naturally since she wasn’t busy enough she decided to start blogging.

I love this yard sale makeover  she did that now hangs in her bathroom:

Total cost of $2. A great way to enhance a room, and a reason to indulge in some of those yummy fat quarter fabrics I’m always looking at at Jo Ann’s. Gotta give this a try.

Donna’s ready for Spring with this adorable pinwheel wreath:

Think of all of the color combination possibilities although I think she’s got a great one right here!

And I think I have found a perfect no sew solution for a window treatment for my office:

Strips of ripped broadcloth! A great shabby but oh so chic look.

I hope you’ll go and visit Donna and check out the yummy recipes and other great projects she has to share!

So now, what has everyone been up to this week? Rules are simple. If you made it, link it . Recipes, paper crafts, jewelry, thrift-over , upcycle, DIY, you name it. Please link to your specific post and not your general blog and no advertising or shops. Party On!

Friendship Card

I have a friend who’s been going through a rough patch and while a card isn’t going to fix everything, it’s my small way of hopefully brightening her day and letting her know I’m there for her.

I went to my stash and chose die cuts from K and Co’s “Edamame” collection as my focal. I also had the adhesive scrapbook borders from the same collection.

The damask print background paper is from Recollections. I layered it onto a 5x7 card cut from heavy white card stock, then dry embossed a smaller white panel using my Cuttlebug and a Tim Holtz “Fancy Florals” Texture Fade embossing folder:

The large floral die already had a bit of glitter on it so I layered smaller dies in the center, added a self adhesive rhinestone, and added more glitter using iridescent Stickles:

Used a couple more dies from the pack and a coordinating scrapbook border to finish up the card.

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BFF Open House LInk Party #42 Wrap Up and Features: The I Feel Pretty Edition!

Just to give you a little insight into how my brain works ( it’s a scary place…trust me), I love movies and musicals. So without even trying, I’ll associate something to a movie or a song. Iin the case of my title... one of my eternally classic favorites “West Side Story”.

OK, now that you’ve had a brief glimpse inside the inner workings of me, here’s why I felt that way after this week’s party. I dare you not to feel the same!

Katie, from Creatively Living knocked off  Pottery Barn’s faux dogwood Spring wreath in her even prettier version and definitely prettier price!

I think I’d just stand on my porch and stare at this. She even shows you had to make the Robin's eggs!

I don’t know who wouldn’t feel pretty wearing this gorgeous wrap from Caroline at Artfully Caroline:

Ruffled elegance!

Over at Sew Fantastic, you can see a beautiful headband that looks great on the cutest little model,  but I could also see a grown up version used for a bride.

Finally, Jenn over at Rook No.17 hit it out of the park ( I can be a girlie girl and use baseball terms too!) with this ab fab stamped silk flower pin tutorial.

Now tell me you don’t feel pretty just looking at these pretties! Thanks all for linking up and hope to see you again on Friday. Make it a creative week!

Seussims...Dr. Seuss Printables

With the birthday of  Dr. Seuss (March 2nd)  and the release of the movie “The Lorax” based on his book of the same name coming up, I thought it would be fun to do some Seuss inspired printables.

These are based on a couple of quotes from the late Dr. Seuss aka Theodore Geisel.

I used My Memories Suite digital scrapbooking software and a free font I downloaded, appropriately called “Grinched”.

I love how timeless the stories of Dr. Seuss are, and the great memories we have of reading so many of the books with our son when he was little. Just the other day he tweeted that one of his college Professors started off class with a quote from Dr. Seuss. 

 I used a different background paper and the same font for this one: 

Thanks Dr. Seuss for creating so many memorable characters and a love of reading in so many children and adults!

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.”—Dr. Seuss

BFF Open House Link Party #42 and BFF My Vintage Bliss!

This was simultaneously such a short and long week! I feel like I blink and a week goes by, but here we are again already and time for another party.

This week I’m excited to introduce you to Jennifer from My Vintage Bliss as this week’s BFF. You saw Jennifer’s wonderful work earlier in the week since I featured her stunning ( and FREE ) Union Jack canvas from last week’s party.

Jennifer is married to a very supportive and understanding hubs who supports her endeavors  and they share their creatively decorated home with their fur babies. Jennifer loves to create on a shoestring and I’ll just let you see for yourself how good she is at it!

I am totally in love with these nightstands she made over. WANT!

And they go so perfectly with this shabby chic lamp:

And in case you missed her Union Jack canvas, I’m going to share it again because I just can’t stop staring at its complete awesomeness!

Jennifer’s a newer blogger but clearly a creative force so I can’t wait to watch her blog space for some future wonderful! I hope you’ll go and visit. You definitely want to see her studio so I'm not going to share it here so you'll have to go look! See how I am?

Now, whatcha been up to? Let’s see! Anything goes as long as it was made by YOU. Party On!